Changing times: a longitudinal analysis of international firearm suicide data.

Research Unit for Clinical and Social Psychiatry, Psychiatric University Hospital, Zürich, Switzerland. vajdacic@spd.unizh.ch

Abstract

We investigated changes in the proportion of firearm suicides in Western countries since the 1980s and the relation of these changes to the change in the proportion of households owning firearms. Several countries had an obvious decline in firearm suicides: Norway, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Multilevel modeling of longitudinal data confirmed the effect of the proportion of households owning firearms. Legislation and regulatory measures reducing the availability of firearms in private households can distinctly strengthen the prevention of firearm suicides.